MOTORSPORT: Australasian Safari Leg Two

Leading at the end of Leg One action was both a blessing and a curse for Ford Ranger-mounted crew John Purshouse and Murray Hynes.

On the plus-side they carried a 43sec advantage on Leg Two, but it meant leading the Auto field towards Gascoyne Junction on Leg Two. Like road sweeping in a gravel rally, this meant Purshouse had no reference points on which track to follow as they navigated the day’s two stages. Mechanical trouble, including shearing a front differential pinion and a blown clutch, saw the Ranger fall off the pace in the afternoon.

On the huge 171.47km Bedracoine Find the Ranger crew lost 38min 41sec to Steve Riley and John Doble, their freshly-built VF Holden Ute taking the stage victory and moving to second outright.

By finishing fourth on the morning test, David McShane and Bill Hayes assumed the lead of the event, around nine minutes ahead of the Holden crew.
But if the first stage was huge, the afternoon section was mammoth. At 255.94km, Sonny Find is the second-longest of the event.

Riley and Doble pressed home their advantage in the Aussie Ute, completing in 2hr 55min 42sec to take the overall Auto lead. They beat another Aussie battler home, in the form of Terry Pinson and John Fraser’s Ford BA Falcon Ute, by 1min 23sec. The consistent Greg Scanlon and Liam Nunns finished the stage in third place with their Nissan Patrol, moving them into second overall. Previous leaders McShane and Hayes finished seventh on the stage, dropping 15min 42sec to the leaders.

"We had a decent day with no navigational errors and no flats. We can’t catch him, because when he gets on the flowy [sic] stuff he is off like a scalded cat! So we rely on him to go the wrong way and he did a couple of times," said Riley. "We had a couple of wild offs. The current pace of the top cars is not sustainable, but it’s time to punt hard and take the consequences later."

After setting the fifth quickest time on the morning test, Tony Quinn and Dale Moscatt (Holden Colorado) failed to complete the second stage. They joined other fancied outfits Les Walkden/Toni Feaver (Mitsubishi Pajero) and Rob Herridge/Sam Hill, who had oil feed issues to the turbocharger in their Subaru Forester.

In the Safari Challenge class for unmodified four-wheel drives, Motoring.com.au’s own Matt Brogan and Julia Barkley continued where they left off on the final stage yesterday, taking the Bedracoine Find stage win. Their Jeep Wrangler Rubicon X beat team-mates Matt Raudonikis and Ian Wheeler by a scant 42sec.

The tables were turned in the afternoon, with Raudonikis completing the 255.94km monster in 3hr 51min 23sec, besting Brogan by 12min 32sec. Heading into Leg Three, this gives Raudonikis a lead of 20min over Brogan, with the older 2006 Jeep TJ Wrangler of Jarrett and Clint Streathfeild in third position.